Traffic Chaos In Bangkok As Protesters Close Main Roads

[krystian]

2. They managed to pis* off Thai people as much or more than the PAD did

A few taxi drivers standing around Victory Monument surely did more damage than the yellow shirts blocking the international airport for a week, stranding hundreds of thousands of tourists and causing billions of dollars in damage, not to mention the thousands of jobs that were lost.

Aren't you the yellow head band wearing PAD farang? Can't find that funny picture right now ..

LOL now he's pissed

[kurtgruen]

Reports of 2,000 protesters Pattaya now.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/10...cs_30100171.php

Surely *the* perfect excuse to get the water cannons out?

It is Sonkran, why not water them a little bit?

After days of protesting a shower would be nice anyway

I'm really tempted to swing through Pattaya, on our drive down to Rayong, just for the opportunity to take some pictures, but then again, I hate traffic jams. I think that Pattaya will loose out on revenues big time this season, because who wants to take a chance on getting his truck or car smashed or to be stuck in traffic all day

Yes, I think water cannons would be a great idea

[thecatman]

Sure Thaksin was corrupt and put a lot of money into his own pocket, but Thailand was on the right path while he was PM. For probably many decades, Thailand will likely always have PMs who put money into their own pockets, but the difference will be if they do something for the country or if they don't.

You won't believe how many times I've tried to get this very point across to my Thai GF!!

At least there was some sort of stability back then.

[webfact]

A friend of mine is running a large travel agency in Vancouver, BC.

He just skpyed me and reported that now the "reds" have successfully destroyed the returning confidence regarding travel to Thailand.

From Monday till Thursday he has received 126 cancellations! Happy Easter!

[h90]

billions of dollar? Trillions? No Quadrillion, if PAD did not block the Airport for a week everyone worldwide would be rich by now, Nordkorea would be a true democracy, no African would be hungry anymore, Al Quaida would have made peace.......All is the fault of PAD.

I almost laughed. But only almost, so ...not really.

50,000 million baht accounted for the loss of income to the airport authority.

A study done by Bank of Thailand estimated the cost to $290 billion Baht. That's almost $10 billion dollars.

"According to the study, the losses included 120 billion baht in the service industry, 90 billion baht in logistics and 60 billion baht in industry."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/13...bt290-bln-study

If you include goodwill the loss is much larger.

pure nonsense. How shall there be costs of 90 billion baht in logistics and 60 billion baht in industry when everything arrives just 2 days later??

DHL, FedEx, UPS worked without big problems...just some minor delays.

[Old Man River]

PAD was able to get thousands for months....red shirts are down to a few within 48 hours.... given the claims of Rainman et al that there is this 60% support for Thaksin (an opinion) , it seems remarkable that they would lose steam so quickly.

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

[KireB]

billions of dollar? Trillions? No Quadrillion, if PAD did not block the Airport for a week everyone worldwide would be rich by now, Nordkorea would be a true democracy, no African would be hungry anymore, Al Quaida would have made peace.......All is the fault of PAD.

I almost laughed. But only almost, so ...not really.

50,000 million baht accounted for the loss of income to the airport authority.

A study done by Bank of Thailand estimated the cost to $290 billion Baht. That's almost $10 billion dollars.

"According to the study, the losses included 120 billion baht in the service industry, 90 billion baht in logistics and 60 billion baht in industry."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/13...bt290-bln-study

If you include goodwill the loss is much larger.

Nonsense indeed these figures, probably politically biased. 10 billion dollars for a week's closure? That's bout 5% of the yearly GDP!

[tourleadersi]

I totally agree and here again, Democracy itself is only supported by the propaganda machine. It is by far not the best system in the world, but the Western media will keep telling you that it is.

I think it is time to develop a new Political system that actually works and gets the job done. Not just here, but around the World... NEW POLITICS! You'd think with all these brains in the world, we would be able to come up with a system that is better.

Divide the country into 8 regions. Everyone gets to vote in a leader of that region. Those 8 leaders have 1 vote in policy for the country. All voting is transparent to the public. Each one acts as a spokeperson for the others for 6 months. After 4 years, votes are held again. Each region will feel like they are being represented and not marginalised. Each has an equal say in the destiny and policies of their country, and no sector or party can dominate the others. Corrupt activities will then need to involve 8 people, with one potential whistle blower keeping the other 7 in check.

Different to how things are done now, but this present system is failing the country because various groups are feeling marginalised or ignored.

[h90]

PAD was able to get thousands for months....red shirts are down to a few within 48 hours.... given the claims of Rainman et al that there is this 60% support for Thaksin (an opinion) , it seems remarkable that they would lose steam so quickly.

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

Well you have a few thousand communists, a few thousand Thaksin lovers, but mostly hard to mobilize without money, a few hundred violent thaksin lovers from the slums. Than from the North a few thousand. Maybe a total of 5000. The rest must be paid or some come out of curiosity: Get picked up, sent per bus to Bangkok, get feed, sent per bus home, get the 500 Baht, but don't care if Red, Yellow or Brown shirts.

[rainman]

pure nonsense. How shall there be costs of 90 billion baht in logistics and 60 billion baht in industry when everything arrives just 2 days later??

DHL, FedEx, UPS worked without big problems...just some minor delays.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot, fruits and all other exports are shipped FedEx, right?

The tourists that were stuck here for a week, they should have flown back home with DHL.

I have to stop now, ********** Flame deleted. Keep the debate civil- mario2008

Edited April 10, 2009 by Mario2008

[webfact]

PAD was able to get thousands for months....red shirts are down to a few within 48 hours.... given the claims of Rainman et al that there is this 60% support for Thaksin (an opinion) , it seems remarkable that they would lose steam so quickly.

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

Well you have a few thousand communists, a few thousand Thaksin lovers, but mostly hard to mobilize without money, a few hundred violent thaksin lovers from the slums. Than from the North a few thousand. Maybe a total of 5000. The rest must be paid or some come out of curiosity: Get picked up, sent per bus to Bangkok, get feed, sent per bus home, get the 500 Baht, but don't care if Red, Yellow or Brown shirts.

You said it! Thats exactly what I was told by many Thais I have spoken to in the last few days!

[h90]

I totally agree and here again, Democracy itself is only supported by the propaganda machine. It is by far not the best system in the world, but the Western media will keep telling you that it is.

I think it is time to develop a new Political system that actually works and gets the job done. Not just here, but around the World... NEW POLITICS! You'd think with all these brains in the world, we would be able to come up with a system that is better.

Divide the country into 8 regions. Everyone gets to vote in a leader of that region. Those 8 leaders have 1 vote in policy for the country. All voting is transparent to the public. Each one acts as a spokeperson for the others for 6 months. After 4 years, votes are held again. Each region will feel like they are being represented and not marginalised. Each has an equal say in the destiny and policies of their country, and no sector or party can dominate the others. Corrupt activities will then need to involve 8 people, with one potential whistle blower keeping the other 7 in check.

Different to how things are done now, but this present system is failing the country because various groups are feeling marginalised or ignored.

make 4 (or 8) areas with local area governments as you told.

And a central government in a proportional election.

The central government is only doing defense, the highways, some general environment laws, some general education things.

The other things are done by the local governments which also gets most of the local collected tax money.

Than Essan can have their TRT government and will see how they all get quickly rich under their dear leader, while the south and Bangkok gets poor with the evil Democrats. And if it develops different they may find out that Thaksin might not be Che Guevara/Ghandi and Mother Theresa in one person fighting for the poor.....

[rixalex]

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

You ask others to use common sense, but then you tell us that the yellows were just a mix of homeless people and the rich??? What planet are you on?

Planet Common Sense. You?

A place we call the "real world". Come visit some time.

[Old Man River]

PAD was able to get thousands for months....red shirts are down to a few within 48 hours.... given the claims of Rainman et al that there is this 60% support for Thaksin (an opinion) , it seems remarkable that they would lose steam so quickly.

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

Well you have a few thousand communists, a few thousand Thaksin lovers, but mostly hard to mobilize without money, a few hundred violent thaksin lovers from the slums. Than from the North a few thousand. Maybe a total of 5000. The rest must be paid or some come out of curiosity: Get picked up, sent per bus to Bangkok, get feed, sent per bus home, get the 500 Baht, but don't care if Red, Yellow or Brown shirts.

Well, there certainly have been a lot of large buses parked in Bangkok that weren't there a few weeks ago. The last time I saw so many was during Samak's time when the UDD were being brought in to counter the PAD.

[h90]

pure nonsense. How shall there be costs of 90 billion baht in logistics and 60 billion baht in industry when everything arrives just 2 days later??

DHL, FedEx, UPS worked without big problems...just some minor delays.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot, fruits and all other exports are shipped FedEx, right?

The tourists that were stuck here for a week, they should have flown back home with DHL.

I have to stop now, I don't have a permit to talk with that low of an IQ.

You send out fruits at shipping costs of 90 billion baht per airplane?

Most fruits and most other exports are shipped per ship (hint, usually the container ships do not anchor at Swampy Airport, as most of them can not fly).

So 90 billion lost on non shipped airfreight without express services. And orders for which products worth 60 billions got canceled?

Now for 3 days holidays even more services don't work (also DHL, FedEx, UPS), does Thailand loose 45+30 billion in Logistic and Industry?

[h90]

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

You ask others to use common sense, but then you tell us that the yellows were just a mix of homeless people and the rich??? What planet are you on?

Planet Common Sense. You?

A place we call the "real world". Come visit some time.

Rainman has his own red planet, he does not need your "real world".

[debcmai]

billions of dollar? Trillions? No Quadrillion, if PAD did not block the Airport for a week everyone worldwide would be rich by now, Nordkorea would be a true democracy, no African would be hungry anymore, Al Quaida would have made peace.......All is the fault of PAD.

I almost laughed. But only almost, so ...not really.

50,000 million baht accounted for the loss of income to the airport authority.

A study done by Bank of Thailand estimated the cost to $290 billion Baht. That's almost $10 billion dollars.

"According to the study, the losses included 120 billion baht in the service industry, 90 billion baht in logistics and 60 billion baht in industry."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/13...bt290-bln-study

If you include goodwill the loss is much larger.

Nonsense indeed these figures, probably politically biased. 10 billion dollars for a week's closure? That's bout 5% of the yearly GDP!

It was high, high season...the peak of their money making time here in tourism. Yes, sir, it was billions. That is NOT political, it is pure economics.

[sabaijai]

make 4 (or 8) areas with local area governments as you told.

And a central government in a proportional election.

The central government is only doing defense, the highways, some general environment laws, some general education things.

The other things are done by the local governments which also gets most of the local collected tax money.

Than Essan can have their TRT government and will see how they all get quickly rich under their dear leader, while the south and Bangkok gets poor with the evil Democrats. And if it develops different they may find out that Thaksin might not be Che Guevara/Ghandi and Mother Theresa in one person fighting for the poor.....

[Old Man River]

PAD was able to get thousands for months....red shirts are down to a few within 48 hours.... given the claims of Rainman et al that there is this 60% support for Thaksin (an opinion) , it seems remarkable that they would lose steam so quickly.

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

Well you have a few thousand communists, a few thousand Thaksin lovers, but mostly hard to mobilize without money, a few hundred violent thaksin lovers from the slums. Than from the North a few thousand. Maybe a total of 5000. The rest must be paid or some come out of curiosity: Get picked up, sent per bus to Bangkok, get feed, sent per bus home, get the 500 Baht, but don't care if Red, Yellow or Brown shirts.

H90, There is no doubt, whatsoever, that many of the Reds are being paid and bused in by organizers. Anyone living in Bangkok who travels the city can see the buses. In one, relatively small area, I counted 74 large buses last week.

What I thought was interesting was the amount of people who come from Bangkok and surrounding areas. This isn't the "army" of hard working farmers that the Red's organizers want to make it out to be.

[tartempion]

pure nonsense. How shall there be costs of 90 billion baht in logistics and 60 billion baht in industry when everything arrives just 2 days later??

DHL, FedEx, UPS worked without big problems...just some minor delays.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot, fruits and all other exports are shipped FedEx, right?

The tourists that were stuck here for a week, they should have flown back home with DHL.

I have to stop now, I don't have a permit to talk with that low of an IQ.

You send out fruits at shipping costs of 90 billion baht per airplane?

Most fruits and most other exports are shipped per ship (hint, usually the container ships do not anchor at Swampy Airport, as most of them can not fly).

So 90 billion lost on non shipped airfreight without express services. And orders for which products worth 60 billions got canceled?

Now for 3 days holidays even more services don't work (also DHL, FedEx, UPS), does Thailand loose 45+30 billion in Logistic and Industry?

Jeez h90, you really don't know what you talk about.

I work for a cargo airline, but any training will be lost on you

You really think our planes will avoid BKK 11-15 April because all are sleeping???

And we only lost a few Baht by cancelled cargo in/out BKK 25 November onwards.

You need to join the financial experts running this country

Edited April 10, 2009 by tartempion

[wayfarer108]

PAD was able to get thousands for months....red shirts are down to a few within 48 hours.... given the claims of Rainman et al that there is this 60% support for Thaksin (an opinion) , it seems remarkable that they would lose steam so quickly.

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

Sorry to comment on your reading comprehension, but nowhere in that article does it say the majority are not from upcountry. The respective numbers isn't discussed at all, rather a description of the various factions, the majority of which are clearly identified as non-Bangkok in the article.

But I agree there seem to be a lot of 'reds' from Bangkok. Could it be most of them are migrants from elsewhere?

Edited April 10, 2009 by wayfarer108

[Insight]

This is interesting:

Police poised to arrest red-shirt leaders

Metropolitan Police commissioner Lt General Worapong Chiewpreecha on Friday indicated that police were preparing to ask for the court-approved warrants to round up red shirt leaders, including fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Worapong said Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuagsuban, who is in Pattaya, had just called him to check into the progress ot issuing the arrest warrants.

He said the warrants would be based on charges relating to inciting insurrection and causing disturbances.

The Nation

Hopefully they'll remember to keep hold of them this time.

[h90]

H90, There is no doubt, whatsoever, that many of the Reds are being paid and bused in by organizers. Anyone living in Bangkok who travels the city can see the buses. In one, relatively small area, I counted 74 large buses last week.

What I thought was interesting was the amount of people who come from Bangkok and surrounding areas. This isn't the "army" of hard working farmers that the Red's organizers want to make it out to be.

The reports were:

8th: 100.000

9th: 30.000

10th: 10.000

that does not mean that there aren't 50.000 still in Bangkok but instead of demonstrating they may meet friends, sanook somewhere etc etc which sounds perfect probable with the idea that they are not interested in politics, just their bus goes back tomorrow.

10.000 also sounds probable for the real believer.

no way it is the uprising of the enslaved poor against the capitalists. At least it doesn't look like that.

[hammered]

This is interesting:

Police poised to arrest red-shirt leaders

Metropolitan Police commissioner Lt General Worapong Chiewpreecha on Friday indicated that police were preparing to ask for the court-approved warrants to round up red shirt leaders, including fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Worapong said Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thuagsuban, who is in Pattaya, had just called him to check into the progress ot issuing the arrest warrants.

He said the warrants would be based on charges relating to inciting insurrection and causing disturbances.

The Nation

Hopefully they'll remember to keep hold of them this time.

Insurrection is a big charge, They will be spending Songkhran behind bars unless lucky, Abhisit is feeling genrous or they do a runner or go to ground. Assuming the report is correct and police do move forward.

[h90]

pure nonsense. How shall there be costs of 90 billion baht in logistics and 60 billion baht in industry when everything arrives just 2 days later??

DHL, FedEx, UPS worked without big problems...just some minor delays.

Oh yeah, I totally forgot, fruits and all other exports are shipped FedEx, right?

The tourists that were stuck here for a week, they should have flown back home with DHL.

I have to stop now, I don't have a permit to talk with that low of an IQ.

You send out fruits at shipping costs of 90 billion baht per airplane?

Most fruits and most other exports are shipped per ship (hint, usually the container ships do not anchor at Swampy Airport, as most of them can not fly).

So 90 billion lost on non shipped airfreight without express services. And orders for which products worth 60 billions got canceled?

Now for 3 days holidays even more services don't work (also DHL, FedEx, UPS), does Thailand loose 45+30 billion in Logistic and Industry?

Jeez h90, you really don't know what you talk about.

I work for a cargo airline, but any training will be lost on you

You really think our planes will avoid BKK 11-15 April because all are sleeping???

And we only lost a few Baht by cancelled cargo in/out BKK 25 November onwards.

You need to join the financial experts running this country

Well my imports and exports came in and went out during this week of airport seizure. So please put some light on where the 90 billion got lost and which part of the airfreight makes a 4.7 Trillion Baht per year to loose 90 billion in one week. (and we are not speaking about tourists we speak about logistics at the airport minus Express Services which worked almost normal).

[Old Man River]

PAD was able to get thousands for months....red shirts are down to a few within 48 hours.... given the claims of Rainman et al that there is this 60% support for Thaksin (an opinion) , it seems remarkable that they would lose steam so quickly.

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

Sorry to comment on your reading comprehension, but nowhere in that article does it say the majority are not from upcountry. The respective numbers isn't discussed at all, rather a description of the various factions, the majority of which are clearly identified as non-Bangkok in the article.

No problem. Please re-read the article. It states that group one comprises about 10,000 with the rest from groups 2 and 3 which come from Bangkok and nearby provinces. Now, I don't know exactly what the ultimate count on demonstrators ended up to be, but accounts continued to pour in saying it was from 80,000 to 100,000 and sometimes more. If 10,000 come from the North, Northeast and Central region and the remainder from Bangkok and adjacent areas, then the vast majority would come from Bangkok and adjacent areas.

Do you read this differently?

[hammered]

PAD was able to get thousands for months....red shirts are down to a few within 48 hours.... given the claims of Rainman et al that there is this 60% support for Thaksin (an opinion) , it seems remarkable that they would lose steam so quickly.

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

Sorry to comment on your reading comprehension, but nowhere in that article does it say the majority are not from upcountry. The respective numbers isn't discussed at all, rather a description of the various factions, the majority of which are clearly identified as non-Bangkok in the article.

It is no big secret. The majoirty come form provinces around Bangkok particualarly areas where PTPMps are influential figures such as Pathum Thani and Chachoengsao. The involvement of PTP MPs and ex-TRT MPs in organising the demo has given it the big numbers. If the definition of upcounty means outside Bangkok then you would be right. However, if the definition of upcountry were to mean North and Isaan then you would be wrong. The red demos have not been overwhelmingly Isaan and North for some time now from what I have heard.

As an aside it would be interesting to see how many the Dems could turn out if they called a demo, which I hope they wont. They never even organised for the PAD, and early in Thaksin's troubles called off the only demo they were going to call.

[hammered]

It is ironic that as they talk of seizing provincial halls the red shirts are rapidly becoming all that they said they despised about the yellow shirts.

[Old Man River]

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

Sorry to comment on your reading comprehension, but nowhere in that article does it say the majority are not from upcountry. The respective numbers isn't discussed at all, rather a description of the various factions, the majority of which are clearly identified as non-Bangkok in the article.

No problem. Please re-read the article. It states that group one comprises about 10,000 with the rest from groups 2 and 3 which come from Bangkok and nearby provinces. Now, I don't know exactly what the ultimate count on demonstrators ended up to be, but accounts continued to pour in saying it was from 80,000 to 100,000 and sometimes more. If 10,000 come from the North, Northeast and Central region and the remainder from Bangkok and adjacent areas, then the vast majority would come from Bangkok and adjacent areas.

Do you read this differently?

As a follow up to my comment above, please see the link posted below:

http://bangkokpundit.blogspot.com/2009/04/...red-shirts.html

[wayfarer108]

PAD was able to get thousands for months....red shirts are down to a few within 48 hours.... given the claims of Rainman et al that there is this 60% support for Thaksin (an opinion) , it seems remarkable that they would lose steam so quickly.

Perhaps because the red shirts have to go to work? I can't think of any average Thai citizen that can afford to sit around the government building for months without having to go to work. The people that sat around for PAD where either the homeless trying to get free food and shelter or high class Thais who could afford not to go to work for several months.

Use a bit of common sense, please.

Instead of guessing the make up of the Reds, why don't you read it for yourself. You will be shocked to find out the majority of the Reds demonstrators are not from upcountry.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/04/09...cs_30100014.php

Well you have a few thousand communists, a few thousand Thaksin lovers, but mostly hard to mobilize without money, a few hundred violent thaksin lovers from the slums. Than from the North a few thousand. Maybe a total of 5000. The rest must be paid or some come out of curiosity: Get picked up, sent per bus to Bangkok, get feed, sent per bus home, get the 500 Baht, but don't care if Red, Yellow or Brown shirts.

That sounds about right except for the communists. Not saying there are none in the red ranks, but the Thai communist leadership backed the PAD, along with around a hundred other student, worker and civil servant federations, not to mention most major NGOs. The tendency in the western media is to paint the red side as left, the phantamit as right but it's not that simple. It's more libertarian vs royalist liberal.